Luke's Birthday Party

Luke had a great party today in our backyard with close friends and family. It was a lot of fun. My mom made luke a truck cake and he had his own little cake to explore in his highchair. (Once we download the pictures I'll post them.) He spent the longest time just smashing into that cake and mashing it through his fingers before he even tried to eat it. It was great! He seems to really enjoy chocloate! My sister, Holly, and her roommate carried him directly to the bathtub to wash all the chocolate and frosting off!

Thanks, everyone, for helping make Luke's birthday so special!

Luke's First Words

For the past couple of months, he's been saying 'mum mum mum' for me and 'da or dad' for Marty, which is awesome! I usually say 'hi' when I first get Luke up in the morning or up from a nap. Yesterday, he started saying 'hi' to other people. While we were grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, he said 'hi' to lots of women who passed our cart! It was precious and they all got a kick out of it. He'd say 'hi', then flash his dimples and those big brown eyes. How did he learn to be such a little flirt!?

Luke's 12 month Dr. Visit

All was well at Luke's 1 year appointment. He weighs a little less than they expected him to, but he's very healthy. He is only 28 1/2 inches long and weighs 20 lbs 12 oz. The good thing about that was that Luke could stay in his Graco SnugRide carrier/carseat until his birthday. The seat is certified up to 22 lbs and 29", which worked out rather well and saved us some money.

I've been transitioning Luke from the soy formula to whole milk this past week, which seems to be going well. He's not having any reactions, so it appears that his tummy was just very sensitive when he was a little guy. He really likes the vitamin D milk, too. The nurse practioner said I probably could've done this a month ago. Oh well.

He got 4 shots yesterday at the doctor and screamed his head off for all of 5 minutes, then he was fine. We went to Children's Urgent Care so he could have blood drawn; apparently it's routine to test for Anemia. Since they were drawing blood anyways, I asked them to test for food allergies and inhalant allergies, too. He has a runny nose and rubs his eyes and nose a lot, so I have a feeling he may be allergic to our cats. He hasn't had a problem so far with peanut butter, corn or strawberries, which are the biggies for food allergies.

He's pretty much off baby food now. He wants whatever we're eating and prefers to feed himself. Lunch and dinner are usually very messy, but boy does Luke enjoy his food!

Luke is 1 today!

Yup, it's been a whole year already. Our precious boy is 1 year old today! Praise God that he is such a beautiful and happy child; he's such a blessing to our family!

He's not yet walking, but pretty close. He cruises along while pushing his baby walker all over the living room and dining room; I think it's just a matter of time before he lets go and takes off.

He was pretty excited about riding in the car in his toddler seat, too. (Thanks Susan!) He's all excited to be both sitting upright and facing forward; he kept grinning at me in the rearview mirror!

We'll post pictures once we have them...

We Saw the New Baby's Heartbeat!

Yup, we're very relieved. We saw the new baby on ultrasound, alive and well. It's truly amazing to see that little heart beating away so quickly. And there is only one baby, thank God! No twins... as everyone's been asking.

The timing seems really good. I'll be 41 next month, so there was no point in waiting. The babies will be 19 months apart, so they should be close. I'd love to have a little girl, but a little brother for Luke to play with would be nice, too. I'll be thrilled either way.

The official due date is April 23, 2007. Thanks to everyone who's been praying!

Kings Island with Luke

Yesterday, Luke and I went to Kings Island with my parents for GE days. The weather was awesome... the sky cleared up, it didn't rain once, and we were actually hot from the sun beating down on us. The park wasn't very crowded at all.

Walking all over Kings Island was exhausting, but we had fun. We were there from 1:30 until about 6:30 pm when we couldn't walk any further. We discovered that Kings Island isn't very baby friendly. There were only a few things we could go on with Luke, so that was disappointing. There isn't even any place to let him crawl and climb, like a playground; that would've been great. He absolutely loved the big train, though. Just sat on my lap very still, but with a huge grin on his face; he loved feeling the wind and seeing all the trees!

We walked over to check out that new hanging coaster, Firehawk, but it had just broken down so we didn't even get to see it run. It was really strange to be at Kings Island and not ride anything except baby rides. I wanted to go on Adventure Express (it's my favorite small coaster), but was afraid to risk it now that I'm pregnant again. The funny thing is they even had a warning on the small Thomas the Train kiddie ride that pregnant women shouldn't ride. Yeah, right. The thing went so slow that Luke was able to sit in his own seat, firmly belted in and didn't move once. Even though he smiled a couple of times, he wasn't sure what to think of it. He rode facing my mom and I; I think he liked it.

After walking for a few hours, we decided to head over to the picnic area where GE was doing free bingo where you could win stuff like TVs and small appliances. But, no one told us it only went until 5:00, so we completely missed out on the bingo. We had planned to use it as a chance to rest. Oh well... maybe next year.

Unfortunately, all that walking did me in and I felt quite lousy today. Very tired and achy all over, with a headache and dizziness. All day, I napped whenever Luke napped. Thank God that turned out to be about 5 hours worth of extra sleeping. I guess I needed all that rest, because I feel much better now.

Another Baby? Already?

Yup, we're pregnant again. God really does have a great sense of humor. He saved us the worry of trying and waiting by just letting it happen when we least expected it! We were planning on waiting until Luke turned 1, but I found out I was pregnant right before Luke turned 11 months old. I'm almost 8 weeks along and due on April 23, 2008.

My first OB appointment will be next Friday afternoon once Marty returns from his mission trip to England. We'll have an early ultrasound to see the heartbeat, which will be very reassuring. We're excited! God is good!